After the difficult early weeks the time really does fly with babies! We are at 4 months already and they grow and change so much in these first months don’t they? She is 13lb 1oz, still on the 25th precentile line for weight, but she is tall/long and at 36cm she is on I think the 91st percentile line for height! She is a gorgeous little girl but is still quite challenging at times.

So what is she up to?

Feeding and Pooing

We are still using the lactose free formula at the moment and for a while after we stopped the gaviscon, all seemed well and her movements got a bit easier. Lately though she has been constipated again a few times and we are at a bit of a loss as to why really. The other thing is that she doesn’t poo in her nappy. Ever. She will only poo with her nappy off and generally with a bit of help – bicycle legs and lifting of legs. It is a situation which started out of necessity and then became normal and now we are remembering that it isn’t normal, and we certainly weren’t expecting to be doing it at this point. We had thought that by removing the gaviscon her movements would be better and we wouldn;t need to do it anymore, but it hasn’t happened the way we thought it would.

As she is 4 months she should be growing out of her lactose intolerance in theory so we have just bought some normal formula and are going to try her on that. the Lactose free formula can cause constipation so we are hoping that a change in formula will solve all of our problems. FIngers crossed she doesn’t still have a problem with lactose and it works, otherwise we will be of the the GP again! Sorry if TMI about her bowels but it takes up a lot of our attention at the moment!

Sleeping

She still sleeps really well after her sleep training a couple of months ago, which is brilliant. Her little body clock is pretty rigid at night and she goes down at 7 almost every night, regardless of what has happened! Whether she wakes up in the night is more variable, sometimes she lulls us into a false sense of security, sleeping through til anywhere between 530 and 630am or about a week, and then suddenly waking up famished at anywhere between midnight and 3 am for a few days. Because of the varing sleep patterns we still have no daytime routine to speak of (aaaah) though I am very much hoping that a pattern may settle too. We are very much baby led on routine fronts because I just don;t understand how you can force a baby to sleep at certain times or wake up at certain times. I just don’t get it. I wish I did but I don’t. Monkey’s routine fell into place around 4 1/2 mths and I am hoping hers will too. Because she sleeps in her cot we rarely see her asleep but a couple of times this month she has dozed off on me after a difficult afternoon (and once after her jabs :() so we have some shots of sleeping so peacefully!

For the most part we get it right and we put her down at the right level of tired and she goes off to sleep without a peep. other times we get it wrong and I hate it as I am convinced she is tired, only for her to ball. Sometimes she wants to go to sleep after being awake for an hour and a half, other times she will be awake for a good few hours, fussing intermittently but definitely not ready to sleep. I don’t cope well with the sound of babies crying, makes me feel like an abject failure to be perfectly honest so I really look forward to the day when we have a routine so it is a bit less guess work! Teething is playing a role in this but more on that below.

Playing

She loves lying on her playmat and batting at her toys. Her favourite is a pink Jellycat Octopus which we were sent to review before she was born. Monkey was too big to get much enjoyment out of it at the time, but she loves it! She loves her playmat more now too and chuckles away at the flashing lights and dangling butterflies above her head.

She also has a slightly random sense of humour. One thing guaranteed to make her chuckle is Bing Bunny. It is one of her big brother’s favourite TV programmes so it is on pretty regularly, anf well, she loves it, chuckles away at it. Makes me feel like a terrible mother introducing her to TV so young but , ah well I suppose!

chuckling away at Bing Bunny

So far not so random I know, but the other thing almost guaranteed to make her laugh is the pink soap standing on the bathroom sink. Every night after her bath, Monkey has his and often she and I will come and stand in the bathroom to chat to Daddy & Monkey. I stand opposite the sink and she chuckles away for ages. At first we thought it was the taps, being all shiny and sparkly, but nope. Turns out it is the pink soap that makes her chuckle away! See, random eh?

Giggling at her favourite soap bottle!!

Other Development

She is so strong now and still loves sitting up though can’t hold herself up at the moment (she falls forward) she loves being propped up by pillows and surveying the scene.

She is getting happier on her tummy sometimes and she has rolled from her tummy to her back. She did it, just once, nearly a month ago, seemed to scare the heck out of herself and hasn’t quite managed it again since lol! She lifts her head beautifully when she is on her tummy though.

Teeth

We have been convinced she was starting to teethe for a while because of all the dribbling and because of the general fussiness that has become common, and well we are now ever more certain that we are right as there is the little speck of white on her lower gum of a tooth about to pop through! I know it is early but Monkey cut his first tooth at 4 months so it doesn’t come as too great a surprise. Her upper canines also seem to bother her a lot and seem quite close to the surface so maybe they won’t be too far behind either. We shall have to see I guess.

I hate teething though. I hate it. We have an amber anklet which despite high hopes and reading success stories from other bloggers, I am just not convinced I’m afraid. She is still uber grumbly and obviously in pain a lot (I daren;t take it off though in case she is worse without it!!). We also use teething granules, teething gel and have been sent some teethers to review that so far she won’t have anything to do with. Despite all of this though there are days when she will only sleep, or just generally stop whinging and crying, when she has had calpol or baby nurofen. I hate having to give these to her, especially as she doesn’t have a fever or anything, but she is so much better when I do and it is survival as much as anything. I just hate to see her in pain and she can just be so miserable sometimes at the moment which I find really quite exhausting 🙁 Poor thing.

When she is not in pain she is generally a smily little girl and I hope that once these first teeth make an appearance that things will start to improve and we will see more smiles, and less medicine!